“Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation. Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless *distinguishable*, postwar environments: one where you got twenty million people killed, and the other where you got a hundred and fifty million people killed.”
-General “Buck” Turgidson:
President Merkin Muffley: You’re talking about mass murder, General, not war!
“I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed.......”
“But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless *distinguishable*, postwar environments: one where you got twenty million people killed, and the other where you got a hundred and fifty million people killed.”
Of course, General Buck was right.
Kubrick meant it as terrible satire. I think of it as prescient.